October 30, 2013

WeCo, a super boss collaborative co-working space in Edgecliff, made the perfect ground zero for our idea bomb event. Normally home to a family of funky freelancers and exploratory work-from-homers, this night it hosted a bunch Yelpers who all turned up physically and mentally hungry.

From the outset guests proceeded to get Trolley’d. Aviator-swinging, shot-slinging pilots-cum-barmen Chris and Byron serve organic cocktails using native ingredients from recycled airline trolleys, and they damn sure made sure the party had well and truly landed with vodkas infused with mandarin and lemon myrtle, and peach stone, orange blossom and earl grey tea served from their recycled airline trolleys, before creating a drink they dubbed the Ginger Ninja using a giant mason jar of chilli-infused butterscotch schnapps.

As a saying we just made up goes, “A full mind needs a full stomach”, so lucky there was a raft of pizza on hand, along with literal reams of salted caramel, creamy bacon and nacho cheese-flavoured popcorn served in Yelp popcorn bags.

The back corner hosted a take-one, leave-one book exchange, the whiteboard wall became a repository of Yelpers’ favourite books, movies and TV shows, and a big, bad, bacon-infused vodka was dished up to all and sundry in take-home Yelp shot glasses.

Then it was time to dim the lights and hit the couches for a screening of Connected: An Autobiography about Love, Death and the Internet, a Sundance Film Festival selection by the creator of The Webby’s, the Oscars of the Internet which limits award winners to 5-word speeches. Don’t want to brag (we totally do), but Yelp has twice won Webby’s, check out our acceptance speeches here and here!

For the coup de grace – like that was even necessary – Elites left with $50 Uber credit and free WeCo co-working vouchers, and the raffle winner scored a pair of VIP tickets to The Great Big Christmas Lawn Party, which benefits the Eniwe African Children’s Fund.